Box Score LANGLEY, B.C. –  Trinity Western's Cody Fransen (Lynden, Wash.) tallied his second hat-trick of the season to help lead the Spartans to a monumental 4-1 win over No. 5 UBC Friday at Chase Office Field. 

With TWU's hopes of hosting a playoff game hanging largely on the result of Friday's contest, the Spartans came to play, earning a key victory over the Thunderbirds.  

Fransen, who now has nine goals on the season, was electric for the home side, scoring once in the first half and adding two more in the second half. First-year Spartan Jake Ruby (North Vancouver, B.C.) also scored for the Spartans, while UBC's Victory Shambusho tallied from the penalty spot for the visitors.

The win improves TWU's record to 8-6-1 on the season, while UBC, who has already clinched first place in the Pacific Division, drops to 9-2-3. 

With the victory, the Spartans clinched a playoff spot. With a win over Victoria Saturday, TWU would secure second place in the Pacific Division and home field advantage for the quarter-finals.

TWU goalie Sebastian Colyn (Langley) made three saves to garner the victory, while UBC netminder Jason Roberts stopped two of the six shots he faced. 

With TWU earning corner kick after corner kick in the first half – the Spartans went into the break having a 9-1 edge in corners – TWU finally broke through off the set piece, with Fransen heading home a corner from the foot of first-year Tristan Torresan (North Vancouver, B.C.).

In the 33rd minute, TWU's Ruby doubled the Spartans lead, taking a pass from Jacob Low (Port Moody, B.C.) and blasting home a goal from 15 yards out to the short side of Roberts into the top right corner.

The Thunderbirds pushed back early in the second half, evidenced by a 4-0 edge in corners for the T-Birds over the final 45 minutes, but it was the home team extending its lead with Fransen striking again, heading home a Gordon Grice (Burnaby, B.C.) cross. 

Shumbusho brought UBC back within two goals in the 77th minute when he slotted home a penalty kick to the low right corner. With a piece of momentum in their corner, UBC quickly pushed to get another, but the Spartans held the T-Birds off before Fransen rounded out the scoring with an 88th-minute goal, heading in a cross from first-year Marcus Tjernagel (Maple Ridge, B.C.). 

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
"It's a very big win. Obviously the score line was big, but in the end I'm just massively proud of our group tonight in the way that they performed. It was something that we needed to do this week. We talked a lot about refocussing and resetting everything after the losses last weekend. It really came down to us talking about not being defined by one weekend. Our character is more defined by how we recover from failure. Tonight I couldn't question anyone's character. We got huge performances from our whole squad. I thought Caleb Johnson (Strathmore, Alta.) was good tonight. Noah Kroeker (Calgary) was fantastic. Jake Ruby was great and obviously J-Low and Cody were immense. I could go on and on. It was just a performance that we've been waiting for a while for this group and it came at the right time."

NOTABLE
•    Fransen is now tied for second in Canada West in goal-scoring. 
•    Prior to Friday, UBC hadn't allowed more than two goals in a single game in 2019.
•    The win is the Spartans first against UBC in nearly two years, having last knocked off UBC (2-1) Oct. 20, 2017.
•    The 4-1 victory equaled TWU's biggest ever margin of victory over the Thunderbirds. TWU beat UBC by a 4-1 count Oct. 19, 2007. It also equals the most goals TWU has ever scored against the T-Birds.
•    UBC beat the Spartans 3-2 earlier this year at Thunderbird Stadium (Aug. 25).

UP NEXT
TWU will host Victoria Saturday at 7:15 p.m. on senior athlete appreciation night. UBC will finish its regular season Sunday at home against Fraser Valley (2 p.m.). 

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